Intercultural teaching and learning in dance and visual arts: Co-creating an artistic-educational space among South African children and artist-educators from Cape Town and Copenhagen

TY - JOUR

T1 - Intercultural teaching and learning in dance and visual arts

T2 - Co-creating an artistic-educational space among South African children and artist-educators from Cape Town and Copenhagen

AU - Svendler Nielsen, Charlotte

AU - Samuel, Gerard M

N1 - CURIS 2019 NEXS 129

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - This paper explores a one week dance/visual arts project with 9-10 year old children from that took place at the Peter Clarke Art Centre (PCAC) in Cape Town, South Africa in February 2017. The project is run by an intercultural group of artist-educators and researchers residing in Denmark and South Africa. In the project the children explore ideas of the climate, seasons and elements of nature and see how they both make and receive imprints as human beings in the world. It thereby casts light on what children can learn through artistic-educational collaborations about their environment and life in general. The paper illuminates what expressions and experiences become possible in the co-created and ‘lived space’ (van Manen, 1990) of this place through observations and dialogues that include arts-based methods (Jones & Leavy, 2014) in both a critical (Apple, 2013) and embodied learning perspective (Danuser & Sabetti, 2001; Wright, 2010). A hermeneutic-phenomenological approach (van Manen, 1990) is used as a starting point for collecting ‘lived experiences’ of all the participants from the project week. Narratives contribute to exploring what is specific about the space being created, what its purpose is for the different participants, what possibilities this specific place gives for the artistic teaching and learning processes, and what all this leads to from the perspectives of the children. The overarching question guiding both the teaching and the research methodology being: how are children given a voice in all aspects of the project?.

AB - This paper explores a one week dance/visual arts project with 9-10 year old children from that took place at the Peter Clarke Art Centre (PCAC) in Cape Town, South Africa in February 2017. The project is run by an intercultural group of artist-educators and researchers residing in Denmark and South Africa. In the project the children explore ideas of the climate, seasons and elements of nature and see how they both make and receive imprints as human beings in the world. It thereby casts light on what children can learn through artistic-educational collaborations about their environment and life in general. The paper illuminates what expressions and experiences become possible in the co-created and ‘lived space’ (van Manen, 1990) of this place through observations and dialogues that include arts-based methods (Jones & Leavy, 2014) in both a critical (Apple, 2013) and embodied learning perspective (Danuser & Sabetti, 2001; Wright, 2010). A hermeneutic-phenomenological approach (van Manen, 1990) is used as a starting point for collecting ‘lived experiences’ of all the participants from the project week. Narratives contribute to exploring what is specific about the space being created, what its purpose is for the different participants, what possibilities this specific place gives for the artistic teaching and learning processes, and what all this leads to from the perspectives of the children. The overarching question guiding both the teaching and the research methodology being: how are children given a voice in all aspects of the project?.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Intercultural

KW - Arts education

KW - Co-creation

KW - Phenomenology

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2157-1074

VL - 10

SP - 98

EP - 117

JO - International Journal of Critical Pedagogy

JF - International Journal of Critical Pedagogy

IS - 1

ER -